


B'shert

by lisachan



Series: Leoverse [267]
Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:28:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23197837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lisachan/pseuds/lisachan
Summary: Ever since the Thundering, people who have lost their Soulmates during the following Drowning have been reassigned to other people, to make sure no one was ever alone in the city, no one was ever not taking care of. Today it's Leo's Assignment Day, though, and he truly hopes he doesn't get assigned to one of the widows or the widowers.
Relationships: Blaine Anderson/Original Male Character(s), Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Series: Leoverse [267]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/30541
Collections: COWT - Clash Of the Writing Titans/Chronicles Of Words and Trials





	B'shert

**Author's Note:**

> **WARNING:** This story is an **AU** from the original 'verse. What happens in here has little to none correlation with what happens in Leonard Karofsky-Hummel VS The world or Broken Heart Syndrome. The characters involved are (mostly) the same, but situations and relationships between them may be completely different.  
> In this specific instance of the universe, the characters live in a City that's ruled by a Council of Wisemen. Their Ancestors, following the principle that no one should ever walk alone as loneliness is the thing from which crime, sadness, sickness stem, wrote a Book of the Law that dictates that to every person should be assigned another person, the name of whom will be suggested by the Gods, with which they're supposed to be spending the rest of their life. And this all works fine and well, of course, until a tragedy, known as the Thundering, strikes the city, and many, many people in their prime lose their Soulmates. Which must then be replaced.
> 
> Written for this year's COWT #10, W6, M2, prompt: "B'shert (Yiddish): literally, destiny. The search for a person who will complete you, and that you will perfectly complete too".

Last time Leo was here, it was to witness the Assignment of his best friend, Adam.

It was a horrible day. Adam had been assigned to Jesse, a boy his age, perhaps a couple years older than them, not more, but who had been assigned to someone else in the past already, a man named Alan, with whom he had married and with whom he had lived happily for years, before the Thundering.

The Thundering shook many lives, but the ones who were most affected were of course those who had lost someone during the drowning that had followed. So many people losing their soulmates, so many people struck by incurable grief.

And yet they all had to be assigned again. That is the Law, after all. People in loneliness do bad things, lose their minds, seek for twisted pleasure with harm the others. They fall into crime, they go mad, they become a threat to social order – and they end up having to be eliminated.

The Wisemen don’t want that. Of course they don’t want to resort to such drastic measures. So, even though the Book of the Law doesn’t specifically say that you get to be assigned again if you lose your assigned one, they chose to interpret that way the paragraph from the Book that clearly states that no one is to be left alone. Otherwise, they explained, all those people in such deep pain would’ve turned bad. And they’d have to be suppressed.

Of course, Jesse didn’t wanna be reassigned. It was painful to see him dragged into the circle by the Guards, as it was to watch them tie him up and chain him to the floor to make him go through the Assignment ritual. It was horrible to witness the look of complete, abysmal dismay on his best friend’s face as he realized that the day that was supposed to be the happiest of his life were turning into a torturous, painful spectacle.

Jesse cried all through the ceremony. “Don’t do this, no, no,” he kept yelling, “Don’t cut him away from me, don’t cut him away from me!”

It is said that the bond between soulmates cannot be undone, not even by death. Perhaps that’s true, Leo thinks. Perhaps, on the day when he was to be assigned to Adam, Jesse still felt Alan in his soul, and being assigned again stripped him off him forever.

That’s horrible to even think of. He hopes so much that today, the day of his own Assignment, Fate smiles looking upon him. There are plenty men and women here today, ready to be assigned to him. Some of them are widows and widowers from the Thundering, but that’s not the majority of them. Over the last few months almost all of them have been assigned again – there’s a really slim chance for him to be assigned to one of them, today.

He really hopes everything goes well. He knows Adam isn’t receiving much joy from his Assignment, for now. They chat daily over the intercom and he keeps saying that he’s holding on but it’s so hard. Leo asked him if he doesn’t love Jesse, but Adam said on the contrary, he feels dangerously drawn to him, like a drunken man running headfirst into stormy waters. So Leo asked if it’s Jesse who can’t love Adam, and he said that this was exactly the problem-- Jesse loves him. Jesse wants him. He keeps searching for him, he keeps running and then coming back to him, and he hates himself for it. He clings to the thought of his dead soulmate even if he can’t feel him anymore, with even more strength, actually, now that he can’t feel him anymore. And every bit of himself that wants Adam feels as needy as it feels guilty.

Leo wonders why that is. The Assignment is a good thing – isn’t it? It’s supposed to give you joy – isn’t it? It’s supposed to make you happy – what if it doesn’t?

Suddenly, he hears his name called by the Wiseman standing on the pulpit. His heart beating faster than it ever has, he moves towards the center of the room, into the circle. He swallows and waits as the Wisemen chant and pray until one of them stands up and, raising both arms and moving them in circles, calls the name of his assigned one.

Blaine Anderson.

Leo feels his heart sink down into his stomach. Blaine is one of the widowers from the Thundering. He had already been assigned to someone else before, a young kid, sweet, a little older than Leo, more or less Jesse’s age, if Leo remembers correctly-- Cody. Cody Petersen. That was his name. Leo knew him before – well, not _knew knew_ him, but he had seen him. Everybody loved Cody, he was kind-hearted and always sweet, he always smiled and he was very, very beautiful. His wedding with Blaine had been celebrated for days – they were so happy. When he died in the Drowning following the Thundering everyone was so distraught – it seemed as though the whole city had lost its ability to smile, because Cody’s smile was no more.

And ever since that day, Blaine Anderson has never smiled again either.

Nonetheless, he approaches the circle silently, at a steady pace. His eyes are distant and empty, they avoid Leo’s purposely, but he doesn’t protest, he doesn’t shout, he certainly isn’t crying.

This reaction of his, so different than Jesse’s, baffles Leo. What could this mean? Perhaps Blaine didn’t really feel as strongly for Cody as Jesse felt for Alan? Perhaps he was misassigned, and this new Assignment is truly the right one for him – perhaps he _is_ , indeed, Leo’s soulmate, and the moment they touch and join hands inside the circle as the Wisemen sing they will love each other, and they will smile, and they will be happy.

It doesn’t happen, though. The Wisemen do start singing and they do touch and join hands in the circle. The ritual is completed and they swear fealty to one another, but Blaine never smiles, and Leo certainly doesn’t feel any happier than before. If anything, upon seeing Blaine’s unchanging expression all through the ritual, he couldn’t help feel lost, and uncertain, and full of fear for what’s ahead.

This wasn’t supposed to work like this. His Assignment was supposed to complete him.

Instead, when they get home – the same house Blaine used to share with Cody, now devoid of all traces that he ever existed – Blaine leads him off the car and inside, and once they’re in the hallway he stops holding his hand immediately.

“The servants will show you where you’ll sleep,” Blaine says coldly, heading away.

“But—” Leo stops him, turning towards him, “Aren’t we supposed to be sleeping together?”

Blaine stops halfway through a step, eerily slowly turning to look at him. “So says the Book,” he answers.

“And…” Leo swallows, trying to keep his voice steady, “Aren’t you gonna follow the Law?”

Blaine just looks at him silently for the longest time. “No,” he says then. And with that, he leaves.

And Leo’s left alone. And utterly incomplete.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Baby steps still move you forward](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28942953) by [Tabata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabata/pseuds/Tabata)




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